A use‑after‑free flaw in libarchive’s archive_entry_copy_mac_metadata() can cause an application to read memory that has already been freed or crash entirely. The vulnerability may lead to application termination and, if an attacker’s input allows traversal of uninitialized memory, disclosure of sensitive data. The weakness is identified as CWE‑416. There is no indication that the flaw leads to remote code execution, but the denial of service impact can disrupt critical services.

Red‑Hat Enterprise Linux distributions 6 through 9 and Red‑Hat Hardened Images are affected through the bundled libarchive component. The vulnerability applies to systems running any version of the operating system that includes the vulnerable libarchive library. No specific libarchive version numbers are provided in the available data.

The CVSS score of 3.6 reflects a low severity, and no EPSS score is available to estimate exploit probability. Because the flaw requires an attacker to supply controlled archive data, it is likely limited to environments where unmanaged archive streams are processed. The vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog, which suggests that widespread exploitation has not yet been observed. Nonetheless, denial of service can be disruptive to businesses and may serve as a stepping‑stone for more complex attacks if an attacker can gain further footholds in the affected system.